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Force release of details about ‘Coingate’

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Friday February 7, 2014 5:25 AM

It has been seven years since Thomas W. Noe was convicted in the state’s “Coingate” scandal. He
was the chairman of the Lucas County (Toledo) Republican Party who now is spending 18 years in
state prison after investigations of fraud, mismanagement and influence peddling within the Ohio
Bureau of Workers' Compensation, the governor's office and state government (“Lawyer: Ohio probers
haven't talked to Noe,”
The Blade article, Saturday
Dispatch).

This scandal led to Gov. Bob Taft in 2005 becoming the first sitting Ohio governor to be
convicted of a crime in office, for failing to disclose the receipt of 52 gifts valued at $5,800,
including some from Noe.

The state inspector general at the time failed to release a report of the investigations and was
appointed (or maybe rewarded?) by Kasich to be director of public safety, and he now works with the
governor’s JobsOhio program.

His successor as inspector general, Randall J. Meyer, stonewalled the media for years, refusing
to release the report saying it was “incomplete.”

In 2012 he finally relented, agreeing he would release this, but still has not.

How does he get away with this? Does it contain information implicating current officeholders?
TheBlade has sued for release.
The Dispatch should join that suit to let us all see who else might have been
involved.